Today in The Journal News
-
-
- June
- 28
-
A.J. Burnett lost his no-hitter but won the game as the Yankees beat the Mets again.
The Yankees have found Citi Field to their liking as their offense is on a roll.
The Mets have been seeing some good pitching in this series. Ernie Palladino has the story.
Derek Jeter missed another game. This notebook also has updates on Johnny Damon, Jose Reyes and Chien-Ming Wang.
Mark Teixeira thinks departing MLBPA chief Don Fehr deserves some credit.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 10:00 am by Peter Abraham.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
I noticed this is the second straight weekend of Yankee baseball without an afternoon game. Thanks, MLB.
Yanks are back on track.
If they continue to play like this and take series regularly, we will be alright. Now Girardi watch can be stopped
Fehr definitely deserves some credit, most notably for raising minimum wage during his tenure from $60,000 to $400,000 and beating the owner collusion in the late eighties.
Division is FAAAAR from being lost. red socks are a first half team. we are a second half team, traditionally.
froggy = troll
You don’t have to be impressed by Burnett, but five games in June is not trailing by a ton.
We were out last night, so I wasn’t able to watch the game. The place we were at had the game on the t.v. at the bar, which we could just about see from where we were sitting, and all I know is that it looked like the Yankees were always up to bat, so I figured AJ was doing a pretty good job of getting the Mets out. The other thing I realized is how much I LOVE hdtv. The bar didn’t have it, so when we got up to check out the score, we literally could not tell (and by “we” I mean 3 different people and me) if it was 1-0, 3-0 or 7-0! We figured it out when the out count was “1? and then we could tell the score number was a “1? also! And I’m sure it was the t.v. and not the mojito.
When the Yankees are “clicking,” they are an amazing team. Here’s to “clicking” some more!
froggy June 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I’ll only be impressed by Burnett if he beats Boston in a meaningful game. His tenure with the Yanks is defined by that meltdown at Fenway that helped kill any chance of winning the division.
————-
That’s why spoiled Yankee fans are the worst fans in baseball.
The Yanks were undefeated against the Tribe in 2006 in the regular season and lost to them in the postseason.
They need to forget what happened against Boston. Putting too much pressure on yourself to beat one particular team only makes thins worse.
There is a such thing as too much thinking in this game. Amnesia is the best medicine and worry about the Red Sox in August when they are on the schedule.
You people realize that we’re not having a “bad” June. We’re 13 and 11 in June. The other teams in the division are just red hot this month. They’ll cool down.
“That said, his no-no wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did without help on defense from Melky Cabrera, who raced to the leftfield wall to run down and backhand Daniel Murphy’s blast. Suffice it to say that regular leftfielder Johnny Damon, one of the flu crew, probably wouldn’t have made that catch.”
http://www.newsday.com/sports/.....264.column
Hopefully those 8 losses won’t come back to bite us. But we’ll worry about it when we have to, which we don’t right now.
The Yankees are 4 games back and by no means is that a ton of games.
How is the division lost? The Yankees are 0 – 8 against the Red Sox and 42 – 24 against the rest of baseball. While the Red Sox are 8 – 0 against the Yankees and 38 – 28 against the rest of baseball. This division race is far from over. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the Yankees went 4 – 14 against Boston and STILL won the division. Every game matters, not just the one’s against Boston. Losing to Boston counts just as much in the standings as losing to the Orioles does. Just like winning against them counts the same (even though we haven’t done that). You don’t earn bonus points in the standings. A win is a win and a loss is a loss. Would the division be “lost” if Burnett had that meltdown against the Tigers instead of the Red Sox?
That nice catch is overrated. Melky got a bad jump. I’d guess that if another fielder had gotten a decent jump, they could have made that catch a little easier than Melky did.
Damon could have made that play, no doubt.
I was more impressed with Pena’s diving stop.
froggy
I doubt you’d be impressed if Burnett no-hits the Sox in his next appearance against them.
The Yankees have played the Sox 8 times, 6 of them played in half stadium, 7 of the 10 remaining are to be played in the Bronx.
I’ve been around long enough to see much larger Boston division leads then this much later in the season passed by the Yankees, I expect the same thing this season.
I don’t expect the Yankees to pass the Red Sox. If I had to guess now I’d say the Sox, unfortunately, win the division. That being said, it’s ridiculous to call it over at this point.
I think the fans and media make more out of the head to head matchups than the players do.
As a fan and also living amoung RS fans I want the Yankees to beat them every time.
Ultimetly what matters the most is where they end up in the standings at the end.
How about this fact courtesy of MLB official tweet account
Fact: Yankee catchers have gunned down 22 runners attempting to steal, most in Majors. Cubs practically impossible to steal on now, too.
The Cubs and Yanks have freaky similarities, except in record.
Anyone know who the current Yankees player rep is for the Union. I know that Moose had been the rep the past few years after Myers left but who took his place. I believe BOTH Tex and Burnett had been reps on thie teams prior to joining the Yankees.
froggy you a mental midget?
yea they have no chance of winning the division, after all the magic # is like 86 or more…
get a life loser…
“I don’t expect the Yankees to pass the Red Sox. If I had to guess now I’d say the Sox, unfortunately, win the division. That being said, it’s ridiculous to call it over at this point.”
Ummm. Didn’t you just technically…call it over?
Teams were running more on Posada earlier in the season. Testing the shoulder. Jorge responded. Quite nicely.
Teams don’t run as much now.
the losses to the likes of the nats., braves, and marlins and other bad teams will decide who wins the AL East not head to head games, watch…………
Great posts on AJ in the prior thread. He looked great last night – his curve had ridiculous break. I don’t think he’d pitched poorly prior to his recent stretch – he’d had mostly good, solid games (though nothing spectacular, except the first Tampa games)- but his few bad games were really bad. In those games, I think AJ would have struggled regardless of the opposition -clearly he was having mechanical difficulties and couldn’t get in synch. It’s silly for folks to be looking for proof that AJ can pitch well against good teams when he’s done it before in his career. I thought before the season that he would be the key to the Yankees – a good AJ and the Yanks would be good and solid; a very good AJ and the Yanks would be greaet. Honestly, things have changed for me in that I think the Yankees have fundamental flaws that will prevent them from being as good as I thought they could be in ST. Right now, they need AJ to be very good as only CC is basically reliable at this point. I supported AJ throughout, and it was rough to hear him being criticized beyond where I thought he deserved to be, so it’s gratifying to see him pitching so well. I hope he can keep it up. I guess we can put to bed that silly notion that he and Posada just don’t mesh? It’s hardly surprising when new batterymates don’t gel right away – it’s very common, in fact. It seems like Jorge and AJ are truly on the same page now.
I wouldn’t expect much from Wang tonight if he’s got symptoms of the flu -and I don’t think Phil can pitch either (or I wouldn’t pitch him). Tonight might be rough……
Bronx Jeers-No I didn’t. I said I EXPECT the Red Sox to win the division. However the Yankees are a very good team who have the ability to go on a hot streak and who have pitchers that can beat any other pitcher on any given day, so who knows?
Hope that Wang is well enough to pitch tonight. This Met lineup might be just what he needs to get his 1st win.
Anyone surprised that Manuel believes AJ had better stuff at YS than last night? I was in the city that day, so I missed the game, but I don’t think AJ could have had a better curve than he did last night….
“Francisco Cervelli is stamping himself as the catcher of the future.”
He’s certainly got his fair share of competition yet he’s a legit front-runner by proving he can hang with the big boys.
Glad to see so many loyal fans have given up on them prior to the All Star break!
If people weren’t impressed with Burnett last night, they should stop watching baseball.
I don’t care who he is pitching against, this is major league baseball. Anybody with a bat is capable of doing damage on any given night.
I love all the 12 year olds who come on here and say, “If he can’t do it against the Red Sox, it means nothing”.
They show how little they know about baseball.
The Yankees don’t play the Red Sox again until August. If they don’t win between now and August, those games won’t mean anything.
In other words, if they are 12 games out of first place by the time they play the Red Sox again, the Red Sox games mean “nothing”.
Its ok to admire and actually enjoy a performance by a Yankee player in a game that isn’t against the Red Sox. Really, it is.
We won’t tell anybody and you can still continue your hatred of every player on the team who isn’t perfect every single time they play a game.
According to @mlb, Yankee catchers have gun downed 22 runners–more than any other team in the majors!
Mark DeRosa was traded to the Cardinals last night, killing one of our favorite sources of speculation. No who are we supposed to ponder in terms of acquisitions?
Wang needs to make more progress tonight. He last start was better than the one before that so just keep it going.
I wonder if the Yanks will rest Alex tonight or perhaps use the off day Monday and DH him Tuesday to sort of get him 1 1/2 days off.
cannot wait for the end of this NL-pitcher-must-hit madness…
Jon Heyman is funnier on Twitter than on TV-
“nice to see aj burnett introduce mom to ‘mates after game. looks young, athletic. she probably could 3-hit mets.”
“manuel says maybe he’d jump off bridge if #mets go below .500. my NYC faves: 1. verrazzano, 2. throgs neck, 3. 59th st.”
In essence, DeRosa was traded for the Cardinals version of Mark Melancon in Chris Perez.
Would I have traded Melancon for DeRosa? No.
That’s what happens when you make a deal well out of the deadline. You overpay.
The Cardinals overpaid for a very good player because LaRussa put a lot of pressure on the front office (went over the head of the GM straight to ownership) to get something done now.
Since they don’t want to lose Tony at the end of the year (when his contract expires) they ceded to his wishes.
Good job by Mark Shapiro to get an above average price for DeRosa.
“That nice catch is overrated. Melky got a bad jump. I’d guess that if another fielder had gotten a decent jump, they could have made that catch a little easier than Melky did. ”
Dude that was a LD
“Damon could have made that play, no doubt.”
Not the Damon we’ve been watching this season.
“I was more impressed with Pena’s diving stop.”
That was unbelieveable, I mean I haven’t seen defense at SS like that for the Yankees in ages. Jetes makes a jump throw but Murphy hit that ball hard and El Nino just WEB GEMED it from SS to 1B.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com.....id=5282341
That kid watching him field and hit LH if he were on the RS or Angels he’d be starting. I’m positive about that.
SJ I was talking to the blog about how horrible that deal was for STL, Chris Perez b/c of his ERA NYers think he is a nobody, they possibly traded thier next CL for a rental player. After this season DeRosa is a FA, HE’S GONE, THEY TRADED A FUTURE CLOSER for DEROSA. DEROSA ?
SJ44
Good post, as usual.
It seems as if the Yankees may be on the verge of getting it all together, especially if ARod can continue to improve.
You seem to be much testier than in the previous two seasons,has the constant litany of whining complaints worn you down?
Holy crap Billy Mays died
http://www.btls.com/news/stori.....at-50.html
“I got the Jeter,” Damon said after the game. “It’s my head, throat. I have been coughing, [have] body aches and I am freezing.”
NY Post says Tex and Hughes could be the 2 latest victims of “the Jeter” for a total of 11 affected.
A can of Lysol and lots of hand washing couldn’t hurt,
Would you trade Jonathon Papelbon the raw version for Randy Valarde ?, would you trade Scott Schields raw version for Orlando Cabrera ? that’s how horrible that deal was. CLE made it b/c they found thier target, they wanted a CL, they wanted someone to become thier next CL and Perez fits thier bill. Now I definitely certain that had we made that deal it would have taken Melancon/Dunn combo to get it done. Props to Cashman in not making that deal.
Tonight could be a fun game. Nice way to close out the subway.
I would expect Livan to bring his A-game. Something in that Hernandez blood.
Wang’s parents are in town checking out the number-one grandson and one would expect that they’ll be there tonight.
He’s shown progress. Let’s hope it comes together a bit more clearly tonight.
Brandon: I like you, but you are way, way too prospect happy.
I still contend in the end, if the Yankees make a move, it should be for a corner OF.
At years end they lose Matsui and Damon. They need to look into a young OF IMO.
DeRosa would have been a luxury, but doesn’t address a long term need.
Rebecca, I never wanted, never, ever , ever , ever wanted Mark DeRosa, he’s a rental, a quick fix that goes and then next yr. your left saying, you know what that Melancon pitching in CLE would have looked good in our BP, look at that Dunn is pitching well too. The Cards were desperate in making that deal.
William Buckner: Outfield = Austin Jackson
The good infield defense lately should help with Wang’s sinker and the spacious outfield at Citi should help with the ones that don’t sink.
Vrsce,
I get tired of the stupidity. Its one thing to have differing opinions. I’m all for that because its what makes the blog so much fun.
I’m tired of the whiny crybabies who are on here everyday hating everything about this team. Its ridiculous.
If they come back and win games, which is the sign of a good team, its “bad” because they don’t take the lead early in games.
If a guy goes in a slump, bench him and trade him immediately.
Seconds after the lineup is posted, the complaints about it roll in.
A rookie has 2 good days, he is a HOF. A veteran has 2 bad days, he’s done.
Its like this place morpsh into the YES Network message board as soon as the Yankees trail 1-0 in a game.
We have people on here who only post when the team is behind. I’m not talking about trolls. I’m talking about Yankee fans. I don’t get that.
For those who argue their “constitutional rights” are violated when criticized for such posts, I laugh.
If you write something on here, expect to defend the opinion. If you can’t, then folks aren’t going to give you a lot of love.
I just wish younger fans would actually ENJOY baseball and this team. Its clear they don’t.
Heck, even when the team wins, folks rip them.
Its funny and sad at the same time.
I think tonight it would be smart to give A-Rod the night off.
I still think we have more than enough to sweep the Mets, even without Alex in the lineup.
After seeing whats going on with Lowell’s hip in Boston, we need to be smart with Alex.
Brandon: The Cardinals NEEDED to be that desperate, though. Basically they had absolutely no one to protect Pujols. I mean, we complain about hitting Canó after A-Rod? The Cards guys I know would kill for that luxury.
AJ’s mom was at the game? Aww, and she got to see her son pitch brilliantly – wonder if she has any tattoos. I’m surprised there were no blog posts about this at all – usually there are blogs about every single little thing.
SJ:
YOu should check out my blog. I was bored last night so I did a post on the fan’s and the players’ bills of rights =P
I heard on WFAN a quote attributed to Jerry Manuel. That basically he thought AJ was better on Sunday (his last time out) and that his team could have/should have gotten to him. Something to that effect.
froggy June 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I’ll only be impressed by Burnett if he beats Boston in a meaningful game. His tenure with the Yanks is defined by that meltdown at Fenway that helped kill any chance of winning the division.
************
Oh boy how does one even answer or respond to this one?
Rebecca, and they killed part of thier late inning solutions to do it. It’ll come back to bite them no doubt. I know the Cards would kill for Cano hitting infront of Pujols, glad we have him.
in Buster Olney’s latest blog post today he notes that STL might not be done and could potentially add Matt Holliday as well.
Brandon: They did. Hmm. The Cards guys I know seem to be more bothered about the ‘player-to-be-named’ later than Perez.
Jennifer, I heard Manual say that on the postgame last night. He thought that Burnett was better last weekend at the Stadium than he was last night.
“William Buckner: Outfield = Austin Jackson”
IDK about that. I’ve seen him a ton in S/WB this year. Still very raw. Hasn’t shown much power. K’s a ton.
At best his numbers will not replace Damon or Matsui or what they expected to get out of Nady. Not yet at least.
The more I see the possible trade landscape, the more I think Austin Jackson could be a guy they call up the second half of the year.
They need a RH bat who can play the OF.
The question is, which guy out there gives them both without giving up the farm to acquire?
When you scan the list of possible candidates, its not pretty.
If Austin is deemed ready by Late July, if nothing else, it improves the OF D and gives them a way to ease him into the majors. Just a thought.
They are sending scouts almost every week to watch the Rockies. They will probably deny it to their deaths but, that’s to check out Street and not Brad Hawpe.
Hawpe is a LH hitter and doesn’t give them anything more than they have right now.
Street, if he is put on the market, improves the team. Hawpe does not.
As with DeRosa though, its all about the price to acquire him. Time will tell if the price is workable.
Jen, I think any team would have had a hard time with AJ’s curve last night, nevermind a depleted lineup like the Mets put out.
There’s nothing to say to people who weren’t impressed by AJ last night. They’re just “fans” who like to wallow in misery.
I do get the feeling that AJ REALLY likes following CC – but he sounded like that at the press conference. They get along famously and it’s clear how much AJ respects the big fella. If AJ pitches like this, he should stay right where he is…….
How Wang does today really depends on offense.
Wang is not going to pitch shutout ball. If he turns in a quality start (3 runs in six innings), that would be great given where he is now.
But, if offense does not score early, it will put lot of pressure on him. If they score some early runs that would help him settle down and not worry about margin for error.
Betsy, CC and AJ were brought in to be the #1 and #2 starters on the team and yet this weekend was the first time that they actually pitched back to back. Burnett really sounded like he wants to stay in that spot behind CC.
SJ, I think we’ll see Austin in Sept. sort of like a super 4th OF this season and next yr. he’ll graduate to FT player around the summer. What do you think ? I say Sept. call up 20 – 40 ABs hopefully hits .260 – .270 and does the little things, sac fly, bunt a guy over, in this park maybe, 2 HRs but I definitely want to see a few XBHs.
BB,
I don’t know if I agree with you. I don’t think it’s crazy to assume that Wang could pitch shutout ball tonight.
This Mets team is depleted, and theyve only gotten 4 hits in 2 games. Additionally, playing in Citi Field should, in theory, help Wang’s cause tonight.
I don’t think its crazy to say that the Nationals lineup Wang faced last week is better than the lineup the Mets will trot out there tonight.
Dude, guys it’s legit–Billy Mays died!
“The more I see the possible trade landscape, the more I think Austin Jackson could be a guy they call up the second half of the year.”
That’s a bold statement! Do you think he’s that close?
K’s a lot and power is still developing, from what I’ve seen. However, some guys just rise with talent level. Cano was that way.
Rebecca,
“Holy crap Billy Mays died”
At first I was thought who? Then I clicked on the link and was like.. oh, that guy.
How on earth did you find that article?
I do see that he was actually on board a plane that blew a tire landing at Tampa yesterday. I wonder if that story grew legs and evolved into this.
If he is dead though, they’ve got to bury him in his blue shirt.
with the team leading the majors in hr’s & gardner showing signs of life i don’t think we need an of.
another outfielder might also complicate things.
i see cashman going after a bullpen arm because of the health concerns of bruney & boston having such a great pen with a lot of debth.
R.I.P. Mays
This is a Yankees diehard.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com.....id=5283913
Betsy
Agreed, and I think Joe should make an effort to have them continue to follow each other. If AJ is going to feed off of following CC, make it happen.
I really hope this team goes out and scored 4-5 runs in the top of the first. Let Wang get comfortable and in a groove. With the way the Mets are playing right now. If he can get it going this might be the game that really turns everything around for him. It wouldn’t matter that he is essentially facing a AAA lineup he needs to get that feeling of success back and get a W.
“Holy crap Billy Mays died”
Just throw some magic putty on him; it’ll fix him right up.
Rebecca,
Very creative. Nice blog entry!
Re: Sterling, he blew it again last night. I’m coming back from the AP and listening to the game on the radio when Tex hit that double. He called it a HR and blew the call again!
If it was an isolated incident, no big deal. But, that’s about 20th call he has already blown this year. Far too many.
I know Randy Levine and Lonn Trost read this blog and love John Sterling. However, John Sterling is in a job that has had Hall of Fame broadcasters manning that spot. Its a BIG job, and he has to be better at it than he has been this year. His work this year has been below the Mendoza Line when it comes to quality.
Its clear to anybody who knows anything about the broadcast business, and I have been in it for almost 30 years, Sterling is not as good as he used to be. Simply put, he can’t see the action as well as he used to see it and that leads to his nightly gaffes.
I’m not saying “fire him”. I’m saying, help him get better.
Two ways of making him better: Get him a spotter. Spotters basically are the eyes of the PBP guy. A spotter for John would be IMMENSELY helpful to him. In fact, I would argue that he needs a spotter ASAP.
Secondly, hire another guy to work 3 innings, giving Sterling a break, each night. You can swing Kay over for 3 innings on nights Singleton or Flaherty are working and let them take over PBP on TV. Both are more than capable of doing it.
Or, hire Jim Kaat back and have him work 3 innings on radio and 3 innings on TV.
John Sterling has taken ONE game off since he became the Yankee PBP guy 20+ years ago. That’s an amazing streak and I respect his dedication to the job.
However, he isn’t a Federal Judge. The job is not a lifetime appointment. Broadcasters lose their fastball as they get older. Sterling has lost his because there are just too many mistakes in the game broadcast on a nightly basis to just blow off anymore.
Give the guy help and if he refuses the help, THEN you fire him.
I think both Trost and Levine owe it to the fan base to have somebody in that chair for all 9 innings who does a game broadcast that isn’t an embarrassment.
That’s not the case at the present time.
Bronx Jeers: His son said something on Twitter and one of my follows picked it up.
SJ: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
I grew up listening to Sterling paired with Kay (which gives away how young I am!). As a kid, Sterling was great, because he had a great voice and was so clear…I knew exactly what was going on.
It’s unfortunate that he seems to have gotten carried away…though I have to ask: would stronger glasses help? I mean, this is the #1 legit gripe.
Why do I get this feeling that Gardenhoser is going to have a big night tonight.
Is Billy Mays dead? Everywhere I look it seems like it’s a prank.
He’s really dead this time.
His sons twitter:
http://twitter.com/YoungBillyMays
I remember listening to a game last year vs. the Mets…like five times in what I think was a 2 1 loss or something…
“It is high! It is far! It is..caught at the wall. Boy did he give that a ride.”
“This is a Yankees diehard.”
I think that guy sacrificed his PDA on that play. He seemed to trying to put it back together after.
You guys ever watch Yankees on Deck?
I know it’s a kids show but it’s kind of fun. Girardi’s about to drive a stock car.
Wow…Billy Mays dead…
Gee….how I’m going to miss having Al Borland, Jr. screaming at he 24/7 to but some junk from him. Sorry that he’s dead, but, miss that voice and those commercials….not a chance.
I think it’s getting very close to the time that we see Hughes get sent down. He simply isn’t getting enough opportunities to pitch.
If he stays in the bullpen for the rest of the year and is used at the same rate he’s been used in June he won’t even throw 100 innings. That’s unacceptable.
Hughes needs to throw closer to 150 innings this year, not 100. He needs to go down to AAA immediately in my opinion.
It’s not like Girardi is using him in clutch situations anyways, losing him won’t really hurt the team.
Correction: screaming at me 24/7 to
We have to keep Hughes up here. Seems like there’s a simple answer: Use him more and in important spots!
“•The suspicion seems to be that Xavier Nady may need a second Tommy John surgery. Nady is a tough kid, but second TJ surgeries aren’t always successful. One person said first surgeries have close to a 90 percent success ratio while second surgeries are as low as 20 percent.”
Good luck, X.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....ef=writers
Hughes is sick right now which is probably why he hasn’t pitched much this week.
I don’t think he’s going to Scranton. I think he’s going to pitch a lot the second half of the year and get his innings closer to 120-130 than 100.
You have Pettitte and Wang, who are question marks in this rotation. You have a bullpen that still has a number of guys really not suited for high leverage situations.
Bruney’s elbow is also a factor. I don’t think they can push the envelope with him.
If they get an guy like Valverde or Street, and Pettitte and/or Wang pitch better, I could see them sending him to Scranton to get innings in.
Absent that, you can make the argument he is one of the five best pitchers on the staff right now. Hard to send a guy down when he is pitching like he is right now.
Story from NBC in Tampa:
Nationally known TV ad pitchman Billy Mays, 50, was found dead this morning in his Tampa home, the Tampa Police Department reported.
Mays was found unresponsive by his wife and the Tampa Fire Rescue pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m., the report said.
There were no signs of forced entry to the residence and no foul play is suspected, police said.
The Medical Examiner’s Office is expected to complete the autopsy by Monday afternoon.
“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days,” Mays’ wife Deborah said in a statement the police released.
“Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”
Patrick I agree with you- I think its a juggling act but I would send Hughes down to AAA to get innings at this point- build him up in case of an injury to one of the starters (I think a 6th starter more important than a 5th6th inning guy) and then once we get the innings up- lets bring him up in mid-august and he can be a weapon for the rest of the season- I think that was the original plan and don’t know at this point if its neccesary to veer away from that-
SJ, listening to GI Joe w/ Diet Coke he sounded like he wants to make Yusssse the Papelbon of the Yankees and then next season resume his innings in the rotation like Joba.
BTW what are your thoughts of Ivan Nova getting promoted to AAA and how long before your kid Z-Mac gets the next promotion ?
the thing with hughes is he can & is helping this team.
girardi can get him the innings he needs imo.
he needs to bring in hughes for 3 innings at a time every other day when possible.
how many times have we seen tomko when it should have been hughes?
the innings are there & hughes needs to be in the majors to learn how to get ml hitters out.
if there was no way to get him the innings he needs in the majors then he should be sent down.
hughes is getting very important major league innings in or was that will help him a lot next year that AAA would not do.
girardi is using him poorly.
SJ,
I couldn’t agree more about Sterling. I was in the car for that inning too last night. I don’t listen to many games on the radio, but whenever I listen, there’s always a mistake by Sterling. It’s ridiculous. This is the top media market and the top franchise in sports, and that’s what they have calling the games as the “Voice of the Yankees” It’s just sad.
Billy Mays passed away?
RIP Billy
You want to send Hughes to the minors and replace him with who? Neither Dunn nor Melancon have exactly instilled confidence in their pitching mastery, lately.
I’m not a fan of Hughes staying in the pen all season for the same reason as Patrick
But getting Wang back to being vintage Wang would go a long way towards Hughes getting settled into a more important setup role so he doesn’t need to continue to shadow Wang.
Might as well let him pitch more important late innings if they are going to insist on leaving him there.
It would be great to see Wang finally nail down a win tonight just to get that winless monkey off his back.
Vintage Wang would make this team that much stronger.
Sterling’s off his game for sure.
Can’t see him relinquishing his seat to Kay for a few innings.
Can’t even say that it would be an improvement either.
Also can’t say Kay would want the “demotion”.
I’ve had some issues tracking flies at the new stadium as well.
Maybe it’s my new seats.
Maybe the lighting is a little different. Not so much that it effects the play but possibly a subtle difference from the perspective of the audience.
Maybe my vision is going south like Sterlings.
SJ on the Sterling frot ever since Steinr left he has gotten worse. Whether you liked or didnt like Steiner is beside the point but what he allowed JOhn to do was take a few innings off from play by play each game as Charlie did play by lay every few innings. They need to goback to that again or Sterling will continue his fast decline and continue to be an embarassment to this storied franchise.
If Melancon was the price tag for DeRosa then let me add my voice to the chorus of those thanking Cashman for not paying it. I was willing to go as high as Robertson, but no higher.
SJ — might the Yanks also be looking at Garret Atkins as a 1B/3B/DH option who can give them some RH pop? I don’t think it matters because they’re only a game out of the Wild Card and I can’t see them moving anyone significant.
Brandon,
I like them pushing Nova to AAA. Its probably to give other teams a look at him to see if he is a trade piece.
That’s what you do at this time of year.
Keeping McAllister in AA all year isn’t the worst thing they can do. Its a pitchers league and a 21 year old having a big year in AA is really something that can springboard him to the majors.
He has sustainable stuff to be a factor in the rotation mix for next year, IMO.
Did anyone stop to tink that part of Sterling’s problems might be his vision. Over the last two years, it appears that his glasses have gotten progrssively thicker?
stop to think
Hughes down, Tomko DFA. Melancon and Dunn up?
One thing this series with the mets has shown – the yankees are a very, very good home run hitting club.
The new stadium is playing small right now.
But a good part of that is the nature of the yankees team.
Can you imagine if Gardner hit that home run at the stadium – just pulling it around the pole. The screams we’d here about the “whiffle ball park in the bronx,” etc.
2 opposite field home runs all season hit at Citi. The yankees come in and hit 3.
What an impressive shot by Posada last night. To think that the yankees can get that kind of production from the catching spot – what a weapon. Day in and out across a season he gives the yankees such an enormous advantage compared to the other team’s catcher.
And on the receiving end he’s now caught the three of the four best games AJ has thrown all year – the tampa game, the marlins game, and against the mets last night.
Who would have thought that possible after all the hubbub after that Tyler Kepner piece?
Only 2 right fielders Yanks should consider are Hawpe and Choo both are solid with high OBP.
Ah, but can Posada mesmerize hitters with his eyes?
Mo just on Sunday Conversation. Dude is such a class act.
“I like them pushing Nova to AAA. Its probably to give other teams a look at him to see if he is a trade piece.”
I think this is what they are doing. He deserves the call up but scouts have always liked him and he’s now at the point where he’s accruing real trade value.
Packing Nova and Kontos as starting points could be the basis for a bringing back something of value.
The first thing you do to help Sterling (if he has to stay) is get rid of Georgie Girl and get someone in the booth who can fill in the blanks.
Shoot they could probably get the corrections sponsored…. “This Sterling misrepresentation clarification is brought to you by the Law Firm of Dewey Cheatam and Howe”.
Middle innings off won’t help, but taking him off some road trips probably would.
Meanwhile, I had no idea until yesterday that Vin Scully was still even alive, let alone broadcasting.
About Billy Mays:
It’s weird but when Rebecca first posted it I did a search and found out that yesterday he was on a plane that had a tire blow out upon landing at TIA (Tampa). I guess it hit hard enough to jar open the overheads and he got hit with some luggage.
It’s sort of echoes that woman who missed flight 447 only to be killed in an auto accident a few days later.
Final Destination?
“Only 2 right fielders Yanks should consider are Hawpe and Choo both are solid with high OBP.”
But Hawpe is the only decent fielder.
I use to think Choo had range then I watched him, he gets some bad reads, we already have Choo, his name is Melky Cabrera.
86,
The thing that scares me about Atkins is, he has struggled all year.
I’m very leery of hitters, especially RH hitters, that have played a majority of their games at Coors Field. Too many of them don’t seem to translate their success when they are in different locales.
Money is also going to play a role in every transaction this year. I know Stu Sternberg has told his people they aren’t taking on anymore salary this year. I know GM’s from other teams that have gotten the same orders from their owners.
That means, you may see some deals that are simply salary dumps. Or, you may not see many deals at all because even the large market teams are feeling the hit from the economy this season.
In about a week Hughes will lose the ability to build back his innings quickly- what happens if one of our 5 starters goes down? who replaces them? I think Robertson, like
Hughes, has shown he’s ready for a bigger role in the pen-
For now, our pen is fine with the bridge to Mo being Bruney in the 8th- Coke, Robertson, and Ace matching up in the 6th and 7th. Tomko for anything other than that- Hughes is too valuable as an insurance policy to start as well as a full fledged starter next year- upside for Hughes in June/July in the 6th/7th inning isn’t nearly as great-
“Hughes down, Tomko DFA. Melancon and Dunn up?”
There is no way you can send Yussse down right now. None. Tomko DFA will come in time, Melancon needs a bit more time. Dunn I could see next mth.
Nobody’s asking people to be impressed with AJ last night. We won, and that’s all that’s important. If we lost, then there’d be something to talk about.
Betsy,
I watched AJ’s innings last night, and Manuel is correct. Overall, AJ’s stuff was better at NYS magnified by the fact that Johan had his career worst game. I’m no pitching expert, but AJ wasn’t as sharp last night. Lots of 3 ball counts. His curve was biting, but his fastball wasn’t locating like it was at NYS.
Like I said last night, the Mets were truly confounded at NYS. They were striking out swinging at balls in the dirt that were breaking right over the plate all night. Last night, he polished them off with fastballs straight down the middle (with one knee-buckling breaking ball). Also struck them out swinging with a few breaking balls, mostly in. So at NYS, the Mets were totally clueless and at Citifield they just looked passive. But I guess getting no-hit will do that!
So anyway, AJ’s looked better, but last night was still a terrific outing overall for the Yankee pitchers.
Pete D — If Melancon was the price tag for DeRosa then it would take Hughes and more to get Choo. I’m not going there. Hawpe is not likely on the block because as I mentioned above the Rockies are now just a game out of the Wild Card. Besides, both are LH hitters and they should add a RH bat. Josh Willingham might come at a reasonable price.
I thought A.J. was the best I’ve seen him last night.
CB
June 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
“I like them pushing Nova to AAA. Its probably to give other teams a look at him to see if he is a trade piece.”
I think this is what they are doing. He deserves the call up but scouts have always liked him and he’s now at the point where he’s accruing real trade value.
Packing Nova and Kontos as starting points could be the basis for a bringing back something of value.
————————————————————
I wouldn’t object to sending them to Milwaukee for Hart. Colorado would prefer unloading Atkins over Hawpe, but, NYY has no use for Atkins. Unless there is a three way deal with a team in need of a third baseman, there’s not much chance of getting a Hart and Street without unloading the farm. Those are the two players that might help the Yanks the most.
Melancon gave up 2 more runs last night in 2 innings of work.
He hasn’t pitched well enough in Scranton to replace anybody on the current roster.
If he isn’t getting outs in Scranton, its pretty tough to expect him to get outs in NY.
Right now, Tomko is a veteran guy they can abuse a bit in the pen. Every team has one.
You can’t win with an all rookie bullpen.
Coke, Hughes (a “rookie” as far as being a relief pitcher), Aceves, and Robertson are all rookies in the pen.
You have 3 vets. Mo, who is 39 and coming off shoulder surgery, Bruney, who has a bad elbow, and Tomko.
That’s why the Yankees are looking to add another veteran arm to the pen. They aren’t going to add another rookie to the mix.
Brad Hawpe is a very bad outfielder. Very bad. Bobby Abreu was arguably better than Hawpe last year. In fact, over the past several years Hawpe has been one of the worst defensive players in all of baseball. He’s a terrible RF. Not even close to plain bad never mind average.
“Ah, but can Posada mesmerize hitters with his eyes?”
No, but he does pick up sonar waves with his ears.
CB what about Carlos Gonzalez, his price tag should be dropping big time since he’s hitting .200 w/ COL. Could Nova be considerable for him ?
I’m not a big Atkins fan… but if they add someone it would be helpful if he coupld play some 3B… not necessary, just helpful.
Could Michael Wuertz be a bullpen option. He’s throwing more strikes this year and wouldn’t require a king’s ransom like Huston Street would.
Why do I keep confusing Hawpe with Fowler?
Oh, and two other things.
I don’t know much about Alex Cora, but he seems to be a pretty solid guy. Looks like he wasn’t on the Sox long enough to turn rotten.
Another thing, in spite of how well he was pitching it wasn’t free and easy for AJ. He’s easily had 3 or 4 games, including the last two, were he just rolled. Great job by Posada to guide him through. A lot of communication and coaching from behind the plate by Jorge. I like how Jorge was playing up to the pace that AJ prefers. Jorge now knows (thanks to time together or the brouhaha) that AJ is a rhythm pitcher and he did a great job making sure that he and AJ got on the same page quickly.
Lowell “hoping to avoid” a trip to the DL
Rishi,
Oh…the curse of MT?
Wait till they come to OUR house AGAIN June 28th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Ah, but can Posada mesmerize hitters with his eyes?
================================
Have you seen Posada’s teeth?? Flash those pearly whites Po Po
“Carlos Gonzalez, his price tag should be dropping big time since he’s hitting .200 w/ COL. Could Nova be considerable for him ?”
No Carlos Gomez. First the Rockies aren’t going to trade him for Nova. Second – he can’t hit so that’s a problem.
Gomez does not help the yankees at all right now. And right now really matters. They have a legitimate shot to win the world series this year. ARod, Jeter, Posada, Mo and Pettite are all getting older. Every year that slips away is costly.
They have no room for a guy like Gomez on the major league roster to learn how to play baseball.
Light hitting, speed outfielders are of limited use, particularly when you already have Gardner and Melky on the roster.
You can’t always wait for tomorrow.
m – sounds like it
Alex Cora gave the yankees major props.
he said everybody keeps talking about boston but if arod is hitting the yankees are a great team.
very nice guy.
BTW, John Gonzalez (?), the outfielder in AAA? Looks like he has a hamstring (serious?) injury per Jennings’ website.
SJ beat me to it, but you can’t be a WS contender with basically rookie relievers other than Mo in the bullpen.
with the yankees payroll & our outfield doing ok cash gets a pen arm.
we lead the majors in hr’s.
“Another thing, in spite of how well he was pitching it wasn’t free and easy for AJ. He’s easily had 3 or 4 games, including the last two, were he just rolled.”
m,
here was the interesting thing about AJ’s game last night. He didn’t have very good command of his fastball.
But he had very good control of his curveball.
That’s a very strange game for AJ as it’s usually his curve ball he struggles with a lot.
He threw his curve ball for strikes 62% of the time last night. I believe that’s the highest he’s been all year. Now a lot of that could be that the Mets hitters had no clue how to pick it up and swung a lot out of the zone.
But if 62% of AJ’s curves are strikes – for whatever reason – the other team is not going to score. He could stand on the mound and tell them what was coming and they still wouldn’t hit it consistently.
I’ve always like Alex Cora and thought Cashman made a mistake not getting him this past offseason.
m
June 28th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
BTW, John Gonzalez (?), the outfielder in AAA? Looks like he has a hamstring (serious?) injury per Jennings’ website.
————————————————————
Is that John Rodriguez, Mel?
bru,
Cora’s no world-beater, but he plays a solid SS and is apparently a good guy in the clubhouse. With a lot of kids, his kind of presence is necessary.
Poor David Wright, he doesn’t deserve the fate he has now.
Cora is likely going to be a manager in the future. He’s very well regarded in the game.
CB,
Yes, that’s it, he didn’t have great command of his fastball last night. Otherwise, his pitch count would’ve put him in line for a CG. I read your posts last night, and they were terrific. You’ve been rough on AJ, so I know he done good.
GB,
Yes, that’s the name. I knew I was off.
Here’s how to order!!
CB,
In the game that got everybody in an uproar re: AJ and Jorge, do you know what the source of their disagreement was?
Posada wanted AJ to throw more curveballs when he has trouble locating his fastball. AJ wanted to, “throw more heaters”.
We now see what happens when you listen to your catcher. Posada’s insistance on not giving up on the curveballs when the fastball location is off is one reason why AJ has turned it around in recent starts. The benefit of having some experience behind the dish.
Bummer for John Rodriguez as he was having a good season so far in AAA. Hopefully his injury isn’t too serious.
“No Carlos Gomez. First the Rockies aren’t going to trade him for Nova. Second – he can’t hit so that’s a problem.
Gomez does not help the yankees at all right now. And right now really matters. They have a legitimate shot to win the world series this year. ARod, Jeter, Posada, Mo and Pettite are all getting older. Every year that slips away is costly.
They have no room for a guy like Gomez on the major league roster to learn how to play baseball.
Light hitting, speed outfielders are of limited use, particularly when you already have Gardner and Melky on the roster.
You can’t always wait for tomorrow.”
Carlos Gonzalez…Gomez is in Minnesota.
If you don’t send Hughes down as a starter, and in 2 weeks Joba’s shoulder acts up, CC’s bicepts tendenidis returns, AJ’s arm breaks down, Wang blows up or Andy’s balky back proves troublesome then where do we go for a starter? No Kennedy, no Aceves, no Hughes (the 3 we thought were “insurance” going into the season)- who is next in line? Do we want to be that vulnerable to the inevitable injury that will happen?
m
June 28th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
GB,
Yes, that’s the name. I knew I was off.
————————————————————
It was only a couple of letters off, so, I figured that it was a typo. Typos are easy for me to decypher. That’s that advantage I have with making so many.
I’ll give you an example of inexperience behind the dish.
In CC’s start the other night, the only inning he struggled is when Cervelli was calling for too many changeups and that sped up the Mets bats.
CC was throwing 96-98 Friday night and the Mets had no chance to touch him. In that one inning, Cervelli let a couple of foul balls off fastballs change the way he called the game. CC got in trouble that inning from going away from his strength.
My nephew did the same thing the other night. He let a few fouled off fastballs affect his thinking and he called for an ill advised 2-2 curveball that sped up the hitters bat, he got a single, and it turned out to be the GW hit.
The next night, same situation with a different hitter, he stayed with the fastball, got the out and they won the game 2-1.
Experience is a huge factor behind the plate. Cervelli has done a very, very nice job stepping in for Molina. However, he is still very inexperienced and there are nights it shows up.
On a veteran team, that can cost you games down the stretch.
What Cervelli is doing is getting invaluable experience that will make him a better player and probably the backup catcher next year.
However, replacing Posada for him right now? Not even a logical position to take, IMO.
Wow, didn’t know that Nostradumbass still posted here.
Just kidding!!! That was a joke!!!
Haven’t done my ASG voting yet, but there’s only a week left guys.
I haven’t been paying attention, but I’m assuming that Longoria leads the vote at 3B. If so, does that mean no Alex at the ASG? When’s the last time that happened?
This flu seems to be a major reason why the Yankees were losing games before their recent streak. Luckily, enough players got hot at the right time to have a good series against the Braves and Mets.
I can’t imagine, with the momentum that we now have, that the Yankees lose tonight. If Wang can get some early support, it’s possible that he could go a solid 6 innings with 3 or less. His stuff is clearly back up to par with his 2007/2008 form and if he can shorten his stride to cause more sink, he should be golden.
And I agree with SJ up above, many Yankee fans think too much in the “now,” see a 4 or 5 game lead, and think “no way are we overcoming that.” But that’s what the Yankees do. That’s how they operate. Even if we don’t get first place, what rotation would you rather face in the playoffs? Sabathia, Burnett, Chamberlain, Pettitte or Beckett, Lester, Dice-K (maybe), and… Penny or Wakefield?
If Alex gets it going, we’ve not only got the best starting pitching in baseball, but arguable the best offense, too. This team is incredibly talented and deep – despite what many people may think. It is the best Yankees teams we’ve seen in many, many years.
Funny but the Yanks sort of need the same trade they made last year.
The best thing that could happen for alex Rodriguez is to not make the All-Star game. The additional rest will only reenergize him. Even Jeter has been locked out of the All-star game a few times.
I wasn’t calling for Posada to be replaced. I simply held the position that sometimes Posada was too stubborn at times.
But since the big flap 2 weeks ago, there’s a noticeable change in Posada’s attitude. Is it a chip on the shoulder? Has he improved the way he communicates with these guys? And you can’t say there was never a problem because there very obviously was.
It’s more of a partnership, and that’s a good thing. Even old dogs can learn new tricks.
m – read somewhere that Posada was told to chill out a little (for lack of a better word)…I have no idea where it was
You’re lucky you weren’t around when Thurman was behind the dish because he might’ve taken a poke at Joba or AJ out there.
Everybody is assuming that Posada was talked to, but something tells me the pitchers were also given some instructions.
No there is absolutely no change in Posada’s attitude. Not even a little bit.
There wasn’t a “problem”. There are always disagreements between pitchers and catchers. The “problem” was, a couple of writers took a basic, everyday thing every team has with their pitchers and catchers and attempted to make it a referendum on Jorge Posada’s current abilities as a catcher.
Much like Buster Olney’s premature career obituary on Arod the other day (and backtracked off it so fast 3 days later, I’m surprised he didn’t get whiplash from such an extreme change in his position), it was much ado about nothing.
There is a change in the FAN perception of Posada because the results are different.
Big distinction.
Catchers HAVE to be stubborn because they are dealing with the most stubborn guys on a team…..pitchers.
Show me a wallflower catcher and I will show you a guy that doesn’t make it at the position in the majors.
I don’t think that Posada was the only one that changed….it seems as if the pitchers have, also. It was pointed out last night that if Burnett wanted a different pitch, instead of shaking Posada off, he just kept looking in and Posada would just flash another sign. It kept them from going through the signs again and it didn’t give the hitters a chance to guess along on the pitches.
“Carlos Gonzalez…Gomez is in Minnesota”
True indeed. How different are they as players?
Because the sad thing is that Carlos Gomez is having a better year than Carlos Gonzalez.
Gomez is hitting .228 with a .617 OPS.
Gonzalez is hitting .200 with a .569 OBP.
Gonzales has a .241 OBP. Think about that – he’s making an out 3 out of every 4 at bats.
That’s mind bogglingly bad.
So No Carolos Gonzalez either.
Rishi,
Even last night, you could see how tightly wound up Posada is. He’s not used to hugging people. lol. They need to come up with those complicated fist bump handshake thingies.
Of course Joba was stubborn, too, which led to the big flap. And one of the guys in the booth said what I said (and got chastised for) during the whole debate. Posada was out and hadn’t worked with some of these guys much (in addition to the FA signings).
So, I was hard on Posada, but I felt he needed to adjust more to the pitchers. And he’s showed that he can. Let the good times roll.
SJ44,
Hughes just got sick yesterday, being ill hasn’t been the reason he is under-used right now.
Look at all of his innings in June thus far. He’s only thrown 10 2/3. That’s simply not enough innings to get him anywhere close to his limit for the year.
He needs to go down immediately and get back into the starting rotation.
What benefit do we have by keeping him in the majors anyways? Girardi doesn’t use him in high leverage situations, he’s always pitching when the Yankees are behind or in mop-up situations.
Brett Tomko can do that, why waste Hughes’ development on being a mop-up guy? It seems pretty silly to me.
Or the pitchers adjusted to him.
I only know what i read – whether or not it’s true is up to the person who wrote the aritcle
Cash is King,
I also pointed out in the flap that both parties needed to meet at the table.
SJ,
Seriously, I’m not talking about the pitch calling. But you can tell from Posada’s body language that he’s energized by this whole flap. I seriously think he’s taking something from the criticisms, as unwarranted as they may seem. I think these guys will break him down by the end of the season. I predict that there will be a cream pie for Posada and no blood will be shed.
The Indians are trying to land Neftali Feliz for Cliff Lee
God hates me
Instead of Hughes being sent down, he needs to be used more which Girardi indicated he’s going to do real soon. As soon as they become more comfortable with Wang’s situation and don’t think CC’s problem is coming back, I see Hughes being used 5 innings each week out of the bullpen.
ultimately, as long as they got on the same page and continue to pitch/catch great games, I couldn’t care less who “gave in” – thought I’m fairly certain you dont become a big league pitcher without some idea of what you should throw when
Again…if they send Hughes down, who do they bring up? Dunn and Melancon are having their own issues. Melancon blew another save and gave up two more runs, including a homer and Dunn is back to walking the ballpark. 1.1 innings and 4 walks last night. 43 innings, 28 walks.
Is Hughes the debate for today and the off day?
I’ll throw my hat into the ring. He needs innings. That’s my position.
“In the game that got everybody in an uproar re: AJ and Jorge, do you know what the source of their disagreement was?
Posada wanted AJ to throw more curveballs when he has trouble locating his fastball. AJ wanted to, “throw more heaters”.”
That’s amazing. And here the inference some people were drawing was that because he’s older Posada is now calling for more fastballs in order to give himself a better chance to throw out base runners like Ivan Rodriguez. Unbelievable.
Last night was a very strange game for a pitcher. AJ’s command of his curve ball was better than that of his fastball given. And he’s always induced a staggeringly high swing and miss rate on his curve ball so if it’s even semi-close in terms of command his curve ball will be the much more productive pitch.
Melancon blew another save and gave up two more runs, including a homer and Dunn is back to walking the ballpark. 1.1 innings and 4 walks last night. 43 innings, 28 walks.
===============================
That’s not good
GB I think that was just a bad night for Dunn, he’s been pitching exceptionally well before that one relief appearance. Melancon needs more time.
“Again…if they send Hughes down, who do they bring up? Dunn and Melancon are having their own issues. Melancon blew another save and gave up two more runs, including a homer and Dunn is back to walking the ballpark. 1.1 innings and 4 walks last night. 43 innings, 28 walks.”
May be Albaladejo. he has been pitching well and better than Melancon and Dunn. With Bruney back we are not looking for #2 or #3 guy in the bullpen.
Hughes needs to keep getting out ML hitters and he can do that while still getting 130-140 innings this season.
GB7,
I don’t care who they call up. Hughes isn’t being utilized right now, he’s the last or 2nd to last guy they call out of the pen. It doesn’t matter who they bring up.
Right now Hughes needs to be starting games and pitching a lot of innings. This is a decision for Hughes’ long-term development.
Also, if you think about it, it will help the team down the road this season. What happens if Pettitte goes down with an injury? Who is the 6th starter? Right now, probably Kei Igawa.
If you send Hughes down, let him work his pitchcount back up as a starter he becomes the 6th starter. That’s great insurance to have down in AAA.
Sending Hughes down is the right move for his long-term future and it’s the right move for the 2009 team.
Even w/ that implosion
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=445197
30 K’s to 14 BBs in 20.2 IP, not great but ok. 1.74 ERA in the last 10 games.
“Hughes needs to keep getting out ML hitters and he can do that while still getting 130-140 innings this season.”
This is simply a false statement. Look at the number of innings he’s at, the number of innings he’s thrown since being moved to the bullpen and how many games are left. If he continues at the current rate he won’t even get to 100 innings. That’s unacceptable.
I think you have to go with your 5 best pitchers for the starting rotation. Right now that’s CC, AJ, Joba, Wang, and Hughes. BUT ANDY PETTITTE IS A STARTING PITCHA!!!!! He has been ineffective and needs to be demoted to the long man role in the bullpen. Pettitte’s best days are behind him and it’s time to give the young gunslinger Phil Hughes his rightful spot in the starting rotation.
Jorge isn’t “energized” either.
He’s an intense guy. That’s what has made him a borderline HOF. He’s also a guy who knows how to play in NY.
Frankly, that intensity was missing last year and that, along with Posada being out, was a major reason why they missed the playoffs.
This team feeds off his intensity. Every team has to have a guy you don’t mess with. On the Yankees, its Posada.
Frankly, if he was here last year, he would have jacked up Cano in June and it would have gotten him going. Instead, they let him loaf all year and didn’t bench him until September.
AJ Burnett will be the first guy to tell you he needs a kick in the butt every once in a while. Jorge is the perfect catcher for AJ because he will limit his “Nuke LaLoosh moments”.
Last night was a great example of that.
They aren’t sending down Hughes immediately when the solution is to just pitch him a little more.
They need him more at the major league level at the present time than they do in Scranton.
Its more about Wang being able to show he no longer needs a “shadow” in his starts.
If that happens, Hughes will get used more.
“This is simply a false statement. Look at the number of innings he’s at, the number of innings he’s thrown since being moved to the bullpen and how many games are left. If he continues at the current rate he won’t even get to 100 innings. That’s unacceptable.”
You know they could always make him a SP next yr. right ?
Once Wang gets going, Hughes can be freed up. He simply can’t continue to pitch 2 innings every 3 or 4 days.
If we had a cushion, and if we had another reliable arm in the pen Hughes would’ve been gone.
But once they tasted the forbidden fruit and seen the kind of stuff Hughes brings out of the pen, they won’t send him back to Scranton. They’re too mesmerized.
Pena, Cervelli, and Hughes doing their jobs. Making the decisions difficult for Girardi.
SJ44,
Wang has shown that he no longer needs a “shadow”. 5 ip in only 62 pitches? He would have easily gotten through 7.
Hughes doesn’t need to be used a “little” more he needs to be used a LOT more. At the current rate he won’t even get to 100 innings pitched. That’s more than 50 innings less than the Yankees planned.
And honestly do you want Kei Igawa starting games for us when one of our starters inevitably goes down with an injury? Because that’s what we are looking at if Hughes doesn’t return to Scranton.
Patrick,
You are making the assumption his innings won’t increase at the ML level this year. How do we make that assumption now?
He could pitch 75 innings in the second half of the year. If he does, especially if he gets 4-6 starts (likely, given that few teams starting five remain healthy all year), in the second half, you have the best of both worlds.
He gets his innings in and helps the parent club win.
Francessa asked Joe about Hughes when he was on the other day. Sounded like he was waiting for Wang to show he was pitching like he should before they could decide how to use Phil.
It sounded like he would be used more like a RP if they felt Wang was ok.
“You know they could always make him a SP next yr. right ? ”
Oh great plan, then he won’t be able to hit 200 innings until 2012. Keeping him in the bullpen all year will really stunt his development.
Funny thing is that Hughes actually loves pitching from the BP, he’s an odd guy. They say they even noticed he pitches different from the BP, almost an attack mentality, gee where have we heard that before
Patrick,
Hughes can throw bullpens on the side, which he is probably doing, to remain stretched out.
He doesn’t need to go to Scranton to be stretched out.
David Cone talked about this last week. Once starters are stretched out, they pretty much remain stretched out unless they get hurt and can’t throw at all.
There is no way I send Phil Hughes to Scranton right now. None.
Not with Wang and Pettitte question marks, Bruney a BIG question mark in the bullpen, and the other assorted bullpen issues on the team.
There will be enough work for him to stay sharp in NY. Its up to the Yankees to find it for him.
Hughes has 64 innings (including AAA). He will be in the rotation next season.
I’d rather have his IP limit closer to 200 than not. I’d rather Hughes available for the postseason next season, than not.
He was covering for Bruney. If Bruney’s back, then they need to get Hughes back to starting.
Spring break’s over, back to school for Young Master Hughes.
Patrick- we are on the same page- a 6th starter for this year, with no real other options if a starter goes down, is more importnat this year-
Give Robertson the innings everyone wants to give Hughes and give him a chance to succeed. In August/September bring Hughes back up- it’s the best thing for this year and the future-
Everyone who wants to keep Hughes up- please answer the question of who starts for us in a pinch-
SJ44,
I’m making that assumption because he’s been in the bullpen for about a month now. We have a pretty good idea of how Girardi is going to use him.
How in the heck will Hughes get any starts? His pitchcount right now as a starter is likely around 50. There is 0% chance right now that Hughes could be an effective starter without time to build his pitchcount back up.
There is also a 0% chance that Hughes throws 75 innings in the second half of the season. Most relievers don’t throw 75 innings in a full season, how do you expect him to do that in half a season? He would basically have to pitch in every game. That’s another injury just waiting to happen.
Think about this realistically guys. If Hughes stays in the bullpen for the whole year he will get probably 100 innings. Our 6th starter will be Kei Igawa. Hughes’ development will be hurt.
It hurts the team in the short-term and in the long-term. The only answer is to move him back to AAA immediately.
“Oh great plan, then he won’t be able to hit 200 innings until 2012. Keeping him in the bullpen all year will really stunt his development.”
He’s 23 relax, they can do the same thing they did w/ Joba w/ him next season. And gee what’s bad in having Hughes be the # 5 SP next season ?
another reason ESPN is a joke.
about an hour ago, Baseball Tonight guys were on – and were just coming back from a video segment. Thinking his mike wasn’t hot – you could hear Karl Ravech say out loud ” Billy Mays is dead?” On camera, all the guys looked at each other and didn’t say anything at first. (probably getting yelled at in their ear piece)
I couldn’t be sure if Ravech said BILLY or WILLIE.
I spent a half hour checking the internet on the health of Willie Mays. Thank you ESPN.
How about Joba for 5, Phil for 4? Phil makes a relief appearance in between “starts”?
Robertson has not shown any ability to pitch in high leverage situations. Everytime they give him that shot, itts walks and runs.
If they need a 6th starter, its Hughes, since he is already here.
Most guys don’t even pitch 200+ innings anymore in the AL. Only a few CC Sabathia’s and Roy Halladay’s left in the world.
If Hughes can pitch 150 innings as a starter next year, which he should be able to do, that’s more than enough.
SJ 44
If you are using him in the 7/8th inning of close games Hughes won’t be the pitcher making the 5 or 6 spot starts, he won’t be ready…
SJ44,
Wang was throwing bullpens too. We saw how effective that was. Hughes cannot start a game right now, no way in hell. His pitch count would likely be at ~50 pitches. So is that maybe 3 innings max? Talk about throwing games away…
You have yet to answer for me a few things. Who is the 6th starter right now? It’s certainly not Hughes. Probably Igawa, are you satisfied with that?
Why the dire need to keep Hughes in the majors? He is the second to last guy out of the pen right now. He doesn’t throw important innings. Losing him would hurt the team about as much as losing Brett Tomko.
“How about Joba for 5, Phil for 4? Phil makes a relief appearance in between “starts”?”
They can do that. Use Yussse as a fireman reliever or a LR/7th inning bridge until Melancon or Dunn are ready. There really isn’t a big problem at all.
m
June 28th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Once Wang gets going, Hughes can be freed up. He simply can’t continue to pitch 2 innings every 3 or 4 days.
If we had a cushion, and if we had another reliable arm in the pen Hughes would’ve been gone.
But once they tasted the forbidden fruit and seen the kind of stuff Hughes brings out of the pen, they won’t send him back to Scranton. They’re too mesmerized.
Pena, Cervelli, and Hughes doing their jobs. Making the decisions difficult for Girardi.
—————————————————–
Don’t over play the value these guys have brought to the team.
Yes they have done well but teams that win have guys like that.
Look at what Green has done for Boston. Thats why you have guys like that. They fill a need for a time not to push AS players to the bench.
I’m not really concerned about Phil’s IP limit this season, he’s pitched plenty before his two injury-plagued big league seasons.
But why stunt his opportunities next season just so he can stay in the bigs this season?
At least expand his role if you’re going to keep him here.
Brandon… “R.I.P. King Of Pop”
June 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Even w/ that implosion
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=445197
30 K’s to 14 BBs in 20.2 IP, not great but ok. 1.74 ERA in the last 10 games.
————————————————————
14 walks in 20 innings isn’t acceptable anywhere and certainly not at AA. Also look at the trouble he’s having this year with left handed hitters. 4.58 ERA, 14 hits, 9 walks and 8 earned runs in 17 innings of pitching against left handers. That’s pretty ugly.
How is there a 0% chance?
Do you really think the the entire rotation is going to stay healthy and effective all year? I don’t.
If either Wang or Pettitte can’t get it going, one of those guys isn’t going to be starting every fifth day the rest of the year.
Joba’s innings limits could also play a role.
Don’t let one month dictate the thinking for the entire season.
It all starts with Wang. If he can be effective, that could free up Hughes to be in more high leverage situations.
If Wang stays winless, its pretty tough to keep a winless pitcher in the rotation all year.
Way too early to send Hughes down to Scranton. Especially when there is no suitable replacement for him on the roster.
MaineYankee,
I’m sorry, I didn’t say that.
I was playing off a quote of what Girardi told one of the young kids (Hughes?). He was quoted as saying, “Just go out there and make the decision hard for me.”
And that’s exactly what they’re doing. When roster moves come up, they’re making the decisions tough.
Though, I don’t know what Berroa did to make the decison hard.
Funny, Sj44, before the seasons started you expressed time after time that the key to Hughes’ season was getting back into a schedule of starting games. You said several times that Hughes needs to stay healthy and start games for the whole year.
What happened to that? Does Hughes’ performance as the 6th man out of the pen really impress you so much? That’s all he is right now.
I think a 6th starter is more important than a mop-up guy. Not only will moving Hughes back to Scranton help 2009’s team it will help the Yankees in the future.
DT,
“I spent a half hour checking the internet on the health of Willie Mays. Thank you ESPN.”
That’s why you gotta come in here first. We had Mays pitching oxyclean in heaven 2 hours ago.
The biggest problem Michael Dunn has is the belief throughout the organization he is poor in high leverage situations.
When you look deeper into his numbers, its an issue.
If he can pitch more consistently in high leverage situations, he makes it tougher on the brass to not call him up.
But, like Melancon, the hype doesn’t match the results when you dig through the numbers. That’s why both guys are still in the minors.
Patrick,
If they need Hughes to start right now, he’s got at least 80-90 pitches in him. Like Cone said last week, once you stretch out starters, unless they aren’t throwing at all, they stay stretched out for long time.
I had the same feeling you had about this until I heard Cone talk about it on Kay’s Show last week. That eased my mind because Cone is on the field working the pitchers everytime he’s working a game. He’s almost like a de facto coach.
Ooh. Tommy Hanson vs. the Sox. Watch. He’ll bomb. Got Pedroia to fly out. Let’s go, Braves.
If a current starter somehow comes up lame, Hughes will be reinserted back into the rotation immediately.
It’s still a long season. No guarantees at all that everyone in the rotation will remain healthy the rest of the year.
m
June 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
MaineYankee,
I’m sorry, I didn’t say that.
I was playing off a quote of what Girardi told one of the young kids (Hughes?). He was quoted as saying, “Just go out there and make the decision hard for me.”
And that’s exactly what they’re doing. When roster moves come up, they’re making the decisions tough.
Though, I don’t know what Berroa did to make the decison hard.
—————————————————-
Thanks. I guess I thought you were trying to add fuel to a fire.
Hanson’s start was in doubt. He’s sick.
m, the announcer said that Hanson has a touch of the flu and was sent home yesterday. Guess the Yanks and Braves shared it.
“How is there a 0% chance?”
Well I’ve explained it about 5 times already but what’s 1 more time right?
Right now Hughes has been in the bullpen for a month. His pitch count will be at around 50 pitches. 3 innings max. That is not a starting pitcher. Unless he becomes a starting pitcher again he won’t be able to start games and get his innings up.
Unless Hughes pitches every game from here on out, there is a 0% chance he throws 75 innings in the second half of the season. Do you really want Phil to pitch in virtually every game for the rest of the season? His arm will fall off dude, get real.
SJ44, there are several replacements for Hughes on the roster. Right now he is a mop-up guy. He pitches when the Yankees are behind and unlikely to win or when they are very far ahead and going to easily win. Brett Tomko can (and does) do that job.
Losing Hughes from the 25 man roster is basically like losing Brett Tomko. In his current role he barely helps the team.
MaineYankee,
lol, no gasolina today.
Fran,
Yankees left their germs in the wrong clubhouse.
Posada isn’t one for indiscriminate or uninvited hugging, or for celebrating things that he thinks are part of the job.
Thank God there ar
“If they need Hughes to start right now, he’s got at least 80-90 pitches in him. ”
He has thrown 10 innings in the last month. How is this possibly true? There is absolutely no way he can throw 80-90 pitches right now.
Patrick,
I don’t agree with you and more importantly, I don’t think the Yankee Brass is going to agree with you about Hughes going back to Scranton.
…still some old-school guys left.
Patrick,
Your assumption is that he only has 50 pitches in him right now as a starter. Its a false assumption because he is more stretched out than Wang was when Wang turned up lame.
As Cone said the other day, once you are fully stretched out, which Hughes is off his work in ST and during this part of the season, it takes a long period of inactivity (ie: not throwing at all) to lose it.
He’s fully able to go 75-90 pitches right now if needed as a starter.
He can’t go another month of only pitching 10 innings. That would impact him.
I suspect though he’s going to get more work in the next two weeks leading up to the ASB.
If Veras or Edwar got the job done, Hughes probably would be in Scranton starting.
Hughes is in the pen because he’s been reliable there. His development is sort of taking a temporary backseat as the organization is very much in a “playoffs or bust” mode right now.
“He’s fully able to go 75-90 pitches right now if needed as a starter. ”
You have nothing but David Cone’s opinion to back that up.
I’ve never seen a pitcher throw 10 innings in a month then come out of the pen and throw a 90 pitch start. Give me one example of a similar occurrence and I’ll start to believe you. Otherwise I feel like you are making up that 75-90 pitch number.
the Braves lead-off hitter is hitting .174?? how does that make any sense?
Patrick,
Don’t take this the wrong way but, if I have a choice in choosing David Cone’s opinion on this or yours, I’m going to choose Cone’s everytime.
As I said, I had the same reservations you did about Hughes until I heard Cone talk about what goes into stretching out a pitcher, how long it lasts, and what you have to do to stay stretched out.
He doesn’t believe Hughes needs to go to Scranton right now and pitch every fifth day. In fact, he believes, this current role is doing more to advance his career than just starting every fifth day in Scranton.
Like I said, he’s a de facto coach on this team, and understands the art and skill of pitching.
When a guy with his resume talks, I listen.
“the Braves lead-off hitter is hitting .174?? how does that make any sense?”
Small sample size. He only has 15 ABs coming into today’s game.
The RS radio guys are blaming the Yankees for leaving the flu in Atlanta. :lol;
Larry Jones homers to give the Braves a 1-0 lead in the 1st.
chipper HR
SJ44,
You don’t have to believe me of David Cone. Simple look at the track record of every pitcher that has ever spent an extended amount of time in the bullpen and then made a spot start or was turned into a starter. None of those guys have had a pitchcount 90 pitches.
Did Cone say Hughes could make a spot start and throw 90 pitches? Or are you making assumptions based on what he said?
Maybe Cone believes that Hughes could do that but history shows, he’s wrong.
Also, Hughes doesn’t have a very important role on the team right now. Other than Tomko he throws the least important innings. It doesn’t really hurt the team in the short-term to lose him, but it will help down the road this season when a starter goes down and Hughes is ready to step in. RIght now, he isn’t ready.
“the Braves lead-off hitter is hitting .174?? how does that make any sense?”
What’s his OBP % ?
nice,chipper, nice
meant to say “You don’t have to believe me over David Cone”
Brandon… “R.I.P. King Of Pop”
June 28th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
“the Braves lead-off hitter is hitting .174?? how does that make any sense?”
What’s his OBP % ?
——————-
.397 for the season
oh, Brandon, and now he’s hitting .167 (after getting out in the first)
Ok I have to run, fun argument SJ44, enjoy the day.
Patrick,
http://www.baseball-reference......;year=2003
Santana’s game logs from 2003. May2-July5. You’ll see several appearences of 1, .1, 2ip etc. Then he’d start and go 5-6, then back to short relief. Enough now please.
Its the New York Yankees not the New York Hughesies
He is effective out of the pen, why would the Yanks send him down to Scranton? To bring up Ramirez or Melancon? Hughes is infinitely better then either of them. He’ll stay in the pen and if a starter goes down they’ll decide how much stretching out he needs.
“.397 for the season”
That’s why he’s leading off.
I’m hearing the Braves have been struck by the same flu as the Yankees.
lol, TBS just showed a graphic of 5 rookie starters that shut down the Red Sox this season.
They’re just like the Yankees, in the respect that familiarity brings comfort.
Brandon… “R.I.P. King Of Pop”
June 28th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
“.397 for the season”
That’s why he’s leading off.
——————–
Their #8 is hitting .140 with a .367…and everyone else is much higher, I would think you’d want this guy at #7 or something…
Hughes does have to go back to SWB soon. I want him to get that 160IP so he can get upwards of 190-200 next year. We already made it so that if he gets another minor injury and can’t hit his cap, he is screwed for next year.
Patrick,
Cone has said for the last two months, putting Phil Hughes in the bullpen would help him and the team. He talked about how Hughes is stretched out enough to be able to handle whatever workload they give him. When he talked about how long a pitcher stays stretched out, it made sense to me.
He also talked about how, after an adjustment period, he can really help the team and himself, in that role. So far, that’s happening.
They took it easy in the transition for the first month. Seems to me that’s a prudent thing to do given, that they had no idea how he was going to take to the role. So far, he’s taken to it very well.
Cone also talked about Phil’s growth in confidence, which he believes is as important as innings in developing young pitchers, would rise if he has success in the role.
Right now, he is shadowing Wang, perhaps for the last time.
If that’s the case, he will have a greater role in the bullpen. That helps this team right now and helps Hughes at the same time.
Plenty of other young arms have gone this route and haven’t had issues. Santana did it, for example.
IMO, just having him go to Scranton to get innings in is not the only way of developing him. Especially when he has shown he not only can get major league hitters out in this role, he dominates him.
I also believe its too early to decide he isn’t going to get more work in high leverage situations the rest of the season.
Wang’s outing tonight may tell us more. If Wang can show that he is over the hump, I suspect Hughes’ bullpen role increases.
Just joining in….
Does anybody have any idea what’s going on with Mark Melancon? He’s gotten roughed up in Scranton, and it’s been going on for a while. For someone who was billed as the real deal, it’s a bit of a comedown. Is it attitude, injury, mechanics? I had been hoping he would make the team, but it looks like he’s spending the year in AAA unless he gets it together.
Yeah, Rebecca – someone posted that above, too
Lol. TBS just put up a graphic of all the rookie pitchers that beat the Red Sox this year. Then the broadcaster said the Sox are an experienced lineup that likes to face pitchers they already have Ab’s against.
Gee, that sounds familiar. Oh wait, but I thought the Red Sox ALWAYS crush pitchers they face for the first time.
“the Braves lead-off hitter is hitting .174?? how does that make any sense?”
What’s his OBP % ?
.240
OPS is .397
Hello folks!!!
The #1 issue is to field the best 25 guys to help the parent club win games.
Right now, Phil Hughes is one of the best 25 guys on this team.
There was never any plan, even if he remained a starter all year, for him to be able to pitch 200 innings next year.
Most teams believe that they shouldn’t even get guys to that mark until they are at least 25-26 years old.
If Phil Hughes can pitch 150 innings as a starter next year, which he should be able to do, this bullpen experience will actually make him a better pitcher in the long run.
Its also helping the team right now. Seems to me, its the best of both worlds.
“What’s his OBP % ?
.240
OPS is .397″
Yeh that sucks.
Joe,
His problem is “real estate” related. Location, location, location. He’s having trouble locating his curveball and guys are sitting on his fastball in hitters counts and making him pay.
He’s going to be very good. It just takes time, and being able to deal with the hard times, for that to happen.
Its the trials and tribulations of young players. Its why the Yankees will find a veteran bullpen arm because its tough to count on kid arms in the pen in a pennant race.
Francouer just got hit in the head.
Penny ?
SJ44
I’ve gotten so I enjoy Cone in the booth.
Listening to him helps you realize that just the ability to pitch doesn’t make you a good pitcher.
It’s interesting to listen to his mental approach to pitching. He was a real competior.
I believe he was involved in helping them get Wang straightened out from something he said awhile ago.
“”As Cone said the other day, once you are fully stretched out, which Hughes is off his work in ST and during this part of the season, it takes a long period of inactivity (ie: not throwing at all) to lose it.”" -SJ
Hughes having the ability to pitch 90 pitches in relief doesn’t mean he will get the opportunity to. Right now Hughes is getting the same amount of work as Brett Tomko… come on now. you don’t see anything wrong with this? There is no rush, yet. Our current starters are performing admirably right now, so one more Wang start with conviction and we can send Phil down. thas it
rip billy mays.
infomercials at 3am will never be the same!
http://ieatsoupwithafork.blogs.....-dead.html
No, that isn’t “it”.
Don’t take a week’s worth of work and decide Hughes isn’t needed in NY.
You have Bruney with a bad elbow, who can’t be used as much as they would like. You can’t use Aceves everyday.
Neither Tomko or Robertson have shown value in high leverage situations.
Hughes is needed in the bullpen. At least right now.
If Wang struggles tonight, he may end up back in the rotation.
You don’t take one of the better pitchers on the team and put him in Scranton. Not if you are interested in winning.
Maine.
Cone has taken a very active role with the pitchers. He’s often on the field with them and spends a lot of time with Eiland, Girardi and Harkey talking pitching. He’s doing more than just broadcaster prep in those meetings.
When Wang was really struggling, Cone was behind him during his bullpens watching every pitch and making notes.
That’s not broadcaster prep. That’s more coach-like work.
Hanson is pitching a no-no
SJ – Thanks. In a way, I find that reassuring. Sounds like something that can be improved with good coaching and work. I’ll be in Scranton next Sunday, for the LoHud get-together, and am looking forward to possibly meeting some of the guys there, including Melancon.
Ortiz with a sweet error!
Nice glove work Slapi!
dammm look at ortiz’s glove-work…lack thereof!
Having Cone in the YES booth is like having a nightly post-script to Joe Torre’s book. I’m reading the “Yankee Years”, and Cone’s influence on those championship teams is astounding. Hearing him every night gives us a taste of the psyche of the 90’s Yankees.
The Yankees are hot again and hope to keep it going to the break but to be fair this Met team is a shell of themselves right now. Its a team you have to beat though and knock off the schedule. If I were Minaya Id just write this off as a lost season and regroup next year. The fact theyve stayed afloat is just a testament to the mediocrity of the National League
why does Brave insist on giving away outs?
“One good part about this new Citi Field could be the center-field food areas. I can honestly say those Blue Smoke offerings were the best barbecue ribs I’ve ever had in a Major League stadium. Not coincidentally, that was also the first time I’ve ordered barbecue ribs in a ballpark.
I wanted to reserve judgment on Day 1, so here we are on Day 2. My initial scouting report on this place is that, sure, it’s an upgrade over Shea Stadium. That’s what Jeter said yesterday and he’s right: look, Shea was one of the worst facilities in the Major Leagues circa 2008. But there is something very generic about this new place — if you air-lifted it and dropped it in, say, San Diego, I’d believe the Padres could have played here.
There’s a lack of ‘feel’ to the building. The Mets’ colors are orange and blue, yet the seats are green and the outfield walls are black. I understand the fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Jackie Robinson rotunda, but why are the security guards wearing Phillies maroon?
Beyond that, it’s almost as though the Mets wanted to ignore their history at Shea Stadium – or at least put it on the back burner – and say that a new era is beginning now. They used to proudly display the achievements of ‘69, ‘73, ‘86, ‘99 and ‘00 on the right-field wall, and that is barely acknowledged anywhere here.
That’s in stark contrast to the Yankees, who obviously went to great lengths to try and bring all of their tradition across the street. Of course, the Mets’ fortunes haven’t gone all that well since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, so maybe that was intentional. Nobody asked, but there’s my impressions of the building”
http://bombersbeat.mlblogs.com/
Mike Lowell is getting an injection today to make his hip feel better. He’s in so much pain he can’t play. If this doesn’t work then the DL is the option. I hope the Yanks use this as a wakeup call to take more care with Arods recovery.. He needs rest at least once a week I imagine.. BTW, Hanson is battling the flu and has a 1 hitter in the 4th. 1-0 Braves!
Big nascar/nextel race in my hometown today.. Hope the rain holds off.
I attended my first game at Citi as well and its like night and day comparing it to Shea. I actually liked the more intimate feel of this stadium compared to Yankee stadium. But I think there is too much advertising at Citi compared to Yankee stadium. They are both fantastic places. I cant judge one over the other.
Is it me or have the subway series games gotten much more dull compared to old days? There wasnt much of a buzz at all.
I think the outfield walls are ridiculously high. I suspect next year they will lower them.
In defense of not having orange seats in Citifield – that would just be ugly! If my team’s colors were blue and orange, I’d try to minimize their use as much as possible!
We went to Citifield about a month ago. The main entry is through the Jackie Robinson rotunda, and Jackie Robinson, a Brooklyn Dodger, is very celebrated there. There is acknowledgment of the accomplishments of the Mets’ championship teams, but those are located OUTSIDE the stadium – banners and montage photographs on the outside walls that you can see as you walk into the stadium. Inside, not so much.
Frankly, they should have just gone ahead and named the place after Jackie Robinson. I kind of understand the inclusion of both the Giants and mainly the Dodgers in the design of the ballpark, because those two teams’ fanbase combined to form the fanbase of the Mets, and there’s that NY history to acknowledge. But the Mets have been around now for over 45 years, and they have won championships and have had star players in their own right. The preponderance of “acknowledgement” should have been on the “new team,” with nods to Dodgers and Giants, not the other way around. If for now other reason that the majority of their CURRENT fan base started as Mets fans, even if their fathers and grandfathers rooted for their predecessors.
By the way, I do think it was a great idea to honor Jackie Robinson in a very concrete way. I just wonder if they could have done it a little differently. The rotunda is a wonderful main entryway, though.
This whole Hughes situation is a big deal. Hughes appeared to be making significant progress toward becoming a solid, major league starter. After Wang’s return, Hughes has been put in a situation where he is not getting significant development and it is stunting his growth.
While I agree that it is better for the team to have Hughes up and on this team, regardless of the role, it is only better right now. Later in the season when we need a starter or next year when he slots into the rotation, it could mean problems. We need Hughes arm to take on a bigger work load so that he can sustain it for years to come. That’s where value comes in. We always debate Halladay’s value vs. the value of Dice K. Comparing their similar sub-3.00 ERAs but showing that Halladay throws far more innings.
Let’s not take unnecessary chances with Phil this year. If Wang bombs this start, we need to insert Phil into the rotation. If he doesn’t bomb it, we need to send Phil down and recall a Chase Wright type pitcher that can fill in as a long man, beside Aceves. It will weaken our bullpen but strengthen our future.
Ken -
I feel the same way – Citifield vs. Shea.
I think that once the Yankees decided to model their new stadium after the old one, the ability to be creative was somewhat compromised. Here’s your outline, fill it in. With Citifield, well, anything not Shea was probably going to be an improvement, but you had a few more directions you could go.
I think the Yankees need to camoflauge some of that concrete. Too much gray in that stadium, to my tastes. And they need a better out-of-town scoreboard, and they need to address Monument Park. I wonder if they’re going to find the aesthetic old-fashioned manual scoreboards were really not worth extra homeruns? And that video banner that spans the entire stadium – well, it could be put to better use – split it up into different segments with different purposes, at least. But overall, I love the grandeur of YS.
Some announcer was saying how Citifield was such an upgrade over Shea because Shea was always had a bad smell and was noisy because of it’s proximity to Flushing Bay and LGA.
That’s like saying that the new Yankees Stadium is better than the old one because the old one was in a bad neighborhood.
Any of you guys watching the soccerfinal?
US vs. Brasil
Big Papi = Big error t’day
Adam the Bull hates Kate Hudson :/ ?
What did she ever do to him ?
Bronx Jeers -
You just have to laugh when you hear things like that. Too many people today just don’t do their homework.
charlestonchew, I don’t agree with your assessment of sending Phil down. The Yankees have to win now and Phil provides the best answer for the bull pen.
TB is leading 3-1.
Of course the Braves’ baserunning mistake costs them a run.
North, I know nothing about soccer. Absolutely nothing. It says on espn that USA is leading 2-0. What happens if the USA teams wins? They’re the winners of the tournament?
US is up 2-0 on Brazil. This is so much more exciting than Red Sox Braves
Leave Hughes alone. He’ll be a starter next season, he’ll stretch out in winterball. Why do you have to mess with winning baseball?
The Yankee team comes first above these guys.
If the US wins they win a minor tournament, but it is their first ever MLB tournament win.
The equivalent would be an MLB team winning their first ever playoff series (but not a world series) after being the doormat for the league, ie Tampa Bay.
Ok, I get it Rebecca. I do know that Brazil is very good at soccer so for them to lose in this minor tournament is probably like the Dodgers losing to the Pirates in the first round of the playoffs. We’re not usually known to be good at soccer. I do know that much.
And Chumper Jones makes an error that may cost the Yankees….errr…Braves.
Luckily, the Sox have Sneezey or Dopey to hit into the DP to end the inning. The Wicked Queens are down 2-0 going to the bottom of the 5th. The Snow Whites are winning.
What happens no matter what is that the US soccer team in a year will get much more mediaattention at the World Championships than the would have otherwise.
And Brasil are featuring all of their world class players, just like Spain did in the semis!
You can tell Hanson is sick just by looking at him. Props to him for pitching so well even though it’s 95 degrees and he has the flu.
“charlestonchew, I don’t agree with your assessment of sending Phil down. The Yankees have to win now and Phil provides the best answer for the bull pen.”
And next year, we have to win now, and Phil provides the best answer for the Rotation for 30 starts. No sacrifice, no victory”
I’m from Italy, where soccer is the national sport.
Can you tell me if soccer is really followed in USA? The general belief here in Italy is that is a sport with not a great success. But team USA plays very well. They beat Spain, which was regarded as the best team in Europe, and now they are beating Brazil, probably the best team in the world.
I can’t believe what I am watching in the soccer game. I have been a follower of the US side for 15+ years and this is the best I have seen them play. They are on the same field as the world class teams!! A bit suprising since after the first Brazil game as I thought they looked the worst I have seen them in yeats.
shoot
any chance of yanks getting bobby jenks or health bell
“I’m from Italy, where soccer is the national sport.
Can you tell me if soccer is really followed in USA? The general belief here in Italy is that is a sport with not a great success. But team USA plays very well. They beat Spain, which was regarded as the best team in Europe, and now they are beating Brazil, probably the best team in the world.”
It does not have a huge following however it is picking up. It has a solid group of supporters but nothing compared to the rest of the world. I will say that in the past 5 years I have seen interest in the Premiership and European soccer grow.
Soccer has a lot of traction among younger people, especially, who have grown up playing it.
what a stupid lazy play by francoeur….
wth are the braves doing…geez…they want to lose
Mental vacation time for the Braves. What the heck are they doing?
Kelly johnson needs to get it togheter
Al (from Italy),
Kids in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas play soccer. My spies in small-town middle America say not so much there.
Without mental mistakes the Braves would be leading 3-0 and there would be 2 outs in this inning.
Ellsbury will steal 2B so they’ll probably get at least 1 run.
Yes, DP!
Been a Yankee fan for many years. Although I don’t see many Yankee games on TV, I follow them on this blog and through Pete and other sources. I think this year the Yanks have a good chance at a wild card spot, not the division. Boston has their number and has a much deeper pitching staff than the Yankees. Coupled with the Yanks haven’t beat them once this year, I think the wild card is the most realistic route to the playoffs. With that said, Tampa, Toronto and either LA or Tex are teams the Yanks have to be concerned about. The Yanks haven’t gone to the west coast yet and in recent years they have their problems out there. We all know RISP is a major issue this year and A Rod has been very disappointing again. The good news is that in recent weeks their pitching has been good. Wang has been a major bust this year so far. I think the season and playoffs will hinge on the Yanks vs Boston the rest of the way and west coast teams.
ty braves
that’s the Nick Green I know and love
A Mariano like save!
Mets announcers love Tex
late line up?
2-2
“late line up?”
8:00 game time…
looks like lidge is gonna blow another save..dam blue jays
Brad Lidge. Come on dude
1 out…1st and 2nd wells up..please get out of this!
Com’on Lidge !
ohhhh caught stealing!
phillies win!
Glad Lidge didn’t blow this game.
Bay down looking!! Come on Braves!
I can’t remember a Bobby Cox led team that was this bad defensively or this bad on fundamentals.
i Think cervelli has done a nice job! i dont think he is better than posada because he doesnt have the experience in MLB. like posada does.. but he has a nice defense and a good offe.! i would like to see him stay in the team… trade molina